Overview

• On August 4, IGN Entertainment laid off eight members of its unionized workforce, accounting for 12 percent of the IGN Creators Guild and spanning editorial, video, events and engineering roles.
• Ziff Davis imposed a company-wide cost-reduction mandate that prompted these cuts despite IGN reporting several quarters of year-over-year revenue growth.
• Under an interim bargaining agreement, laid-off employees received an extra 30 days of pay, two months of employer-paid COBRA health coverage and placement on a six-month recall list.
• IGN management has not responded to the guild’s inquiries about whether budgets for future acquisitions will be scaled back alongside these personnel reductions.
• The moves follow recent layoffs at sister properties such as CNET and reflect broader industry consolidation and budget reductions across gaming media outlets.